


Surrender

by JaneAire



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Angst, Gladio's potty mouth, Gladnis, M/M, Mentions of Death, Promptis if you squint, Sharing a Bed, no beta we die like men
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-02
Updated: 2017-09-02
Packaged: 2018-12-22 19:05:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,551
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11973759
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JaneAire/pseuds/JaneAire
Summary: Gladio and Ignis let out some pent up frustrations following the fall of Insomnia. Angst.Alternatively titled "Ignis is fucking PISSED and Gladio is Naked and Afraid"





	Surrender

"I'm sorry." 

It roused Ignis from his two am thoughts, the spacial divide that he felt in the brief minutes before he fell asleep. He was quite certain he was beginning to come down with something, not that he'd admit to it so early on, but the fact he was still conscious--and clearly hallucinating--had to be a great indicator he'd probably eaten something he shouldn't have. It's what he gets for letting Prompto and Noctis gather supplies. But he'd needed a word with Gladio, alone. 

He was quite certain he'd dreamt it, Gladio's voice was so soft in the darkness. Perhaps it was a just a drowsy murmur on the larger man's end. 

It was difficult for Ignis. He had his back to the man, in favor of watching Noctis in the next bed, curled in on himself with his hair eclipsing his eyes. Ignis had become drowsy watching his breathing. 

It wasn't usual that he and Gladio shared a bunk when they splurged for a hotel room. Ignis was almost always beside the window, Noctis beside him, and Prompto and Gladio in the next bed with the larger man next to the door. That was the protocol, that was always the protocol, and Ignis blamed half of this sleepless night on the fact that he kept attempting to make himself smaller so that the other man might have a suitable amount of room. 

Prompto was the smallest, so he fit best with Gladio, who was the largest. Gladio had to be closest to the door to stop intruders. Ignis had to be closest to the window to stop intruders. Noctis had to be in the middle, to be protected. He hoped Prompto's instincts were better than they looked. The boys had fallen so quickly into the bed, fallen so quickly asleep, he hadn't had the heart to wake the smaller blonde to make them move.  
Gladio had watched with curious eyes as he'd striped and gotten into the other bed, to which Ignis had hit the light listlessly with a mutter of "let them sleep". 

Now, however, in the darkness with Gladio at his back, Ignis had little room to regret his decision. Perhaps exhaustion would win out soon, and then it wouldn't matter his own knee was pressed too tightly against his stomach or that he needed to roll his hip just a little to the side, but didn't for fear of waking Gladiolus. 

"Are you awake?" 

There, again, so soft Ignis wasn't sure it was entirely real. Gladiolus had been moping most of the night--all through dinner, since their arrival at the hotel. It hadn't been as if Ignis _wanted_ to spend the night in a hotel, but with Noctis and Prompto being as tired as the were--not to mention his own wound at his hip thanks to an overly excited voretooth--it was as if they couldn't necessarily afford to camp for the night. Ignis would insure the boys would pick up extra quests to make up the funds, and Gladio wouldn't have to go if he didn't want to. 

Debating whether or not to respond, he watched as Noct's chest rose and displaced Prompto's arm slightly from where it was slung around his Highness' hip. Nodding into the darkness, he felt the bed dip behind him, the warmth against his back disappearing immediately and chilling the bed to an uncomfortable degree. He wasn't sure what had caused the goosebumps to rise on the back of his neck--the sudden chill, or the sight of Gladio stalking out to the balcony, cracking the door only slightly. As he walked, Ignis could watch as the muscles strung tightly in his shoulders, along the back of his calves, moving gracefully beneath his skin. 

He had a choice, of course. There's always a choice. He could go out and join Gladio on the balcony--Gladio, wearing only his blue boxers. Gladio, who'd been cross with him hours before. Gladio, who'd been giving him a near silent treatment since the start of the trip--or he could lay here and pretend it never happened. 

If he shut his eyes, he could hear the waves crash on the beach outside, feel the cool air chill against his skin as the breeze blew in. He heard Prompto shift, pressing closer to Noctis in his sleep, the boys now tangled and deep into their REM. 

There would be no sleep tonight for Ignis, then. 

Gladio only watched from the safety of a side glance as Ignis clicked the balcony door closed, slipping the curtains after him to give them some semblance of privacy. Gladio marveled at how young he looked in this moment, messy hair and silk pajama bottoms, an undershirt that he had outgrown but kept for some reason. Bare foot, sleepy-eyed, casting a curious glance at Gladio from where the large man leaned against the wrought-iron railing, his arms folded around himself and his shoulders hunched in an uncharacteristic kind of way. Ignis straightened his glasses on his nose, and Gladio again wondered at his pale hands, lithe wrists, skeletal fingers. It was the moonlight of Galdin Quay that had made him five years younger, transported Gladio back to a different place. 

Gladio hadn't been so scared back then. 

Ignis folded his arms, his undershirt riding up across his stomach, giving Gladio the sight of a bloodied bandage across Ignis' hip. It might scar. Ignis would hate that. 

"Is there a reason you've arranged for this meeting that couldn't wait until dawn, Gladiolus?"

Full name. Ouch. 

"Sorry," Gladio supplied lamely, feeling all the words stick inside his throat. It was a feeling as if he hadn't brushed his teeth enough, that sort of tacky way your mouth gets when you're sick.  He ran a hand through his hair, pushing it back roughly, caught Ignis staring. 

"Don't be sorry," he sighed, clearly annoyed. "Tell me what's the issue so we can go back to bed before you catch cold." 

Gladio's eyebrows furrowed. "Don't worry about me--" 

"I'm only worried about a delay in the trip. Someone's going to have to look after you when you're ill, and I don't think it's a question of who." 

Gladio visibly flinched, the cold beginning to seep into his bones. "I guess I deserved that." 

"Gladio," Ignis sighed. There was a monstrous amount of space between them, foot after foot after foot and Gladio couldn't even feel the warmth of Ignis from where he stood. It was as if he were alone out here, staring at the sea by himself. God, he'd fucked up. "Get to the point?" 

Gladio swallowed, scuffing his bare feet across the concrete, feeling Ignis radiate his resentment toward him. His words still felt thorny in his throat--stuck and meaningless, absolutely trite. If he said them, was it even a guarantee it meant anything? It didn't make up for weeks of what he'd done and it wasn't a bandage for Ignis to slip over the hole he'd created in their relationship. 

It felt like a mistake, suddenly. Looking at Ignis the first time he had and agreeing that they would be friends when they should've been coworkers. It was dangerous, it was stupid--Gladio was disposable and Gladio had nothing to lose. 

Nothing except Ignis.

God, it _hurt_. 

"I just, um," he cleared his throat, crossing his arms tightly across his chest, leaning on his hip so that he faced Ignis. "I wanted to say I was sorry about you hip." He pointed limply, before replacing the finger at his mouth. 

Ignis' blank stare comforted him little as he dragged his green eyes from Gladio's to his own hip and back. "That wasn't your fault." 

"I know, I know, just," he was scratching at his arm now, and Ignis' eyes pointedly caught it. Ignis caught everything. It pissed him off, how Ignis didn't even have to glance for too long at Gladio and it was as if he understood everything that had ran through his mind that day. He couldn't do that with Ignis. "I'm sorry it happened, is all." 

Ignis shrugged, rubbing at his chilled biceps in an attempt to create some warmth with the friction. "The hotel certainly remedied the situation a bit. The running water is a definite surplus." 

"Right," Gladio said quickly, gifting Ignis a small smile. Blank faced, Ignis returned his stare, unmoving even when the breeze blew his long, unkempt hair across his eyes. 

"Is that all?" He asked coldly, and Gladio knew he'd rather be stabbed in the back than hear that tone again. 

"Um," Gladio swallowed. "Yeah? Sorry for, uh, wakin' you--" 

"Unbelievable," Ignis growled, turning toward the doors with an alarming stomp. Gladio barely lunged fast enough, tripping over his own barefeet to catch Ignis' lithe wrists, pulling him tightly towards him. 

"Hey!" 

"Why haven't we been talking?" Ignis bellowed, pushing his fist so harshly into Gladio's peck he thought it might bruise, pulling tightly away from the vice grip Gladio had on his wrist. 

"'M tryin' to talk now and you're fighting me!" Gladio hissed back, careful to keep his voice down. The last thing Ignis needed on his plate was Noctis being suspicious of them. 

Ignis went limp, suddenly, letting his head fall forward in fatigue against Gladio's clavicle, giving a heavy groan. His hand went still, and Gladio released it, letting Ignis lay against him as Gladio wrapped his arms around the smaller man, rubbing light circles into his back. 

"Do you have any idea how frustrating it has been?" Ignis growled in a wet voice, making Gladio's stomach plummet. He pressed Ignis closer in an attempt to move his too-still body, but the boy still hung against him lifelessly. "Doing this on my own? You've been entirely absent--" 

" _I'm sorry!_ " 

"That's not good enough, Gladiolus!" Ignis growled, pushing off his chest and spinning so that the taller man couldn't glimpse his face, which Ignis was sure was wet and red. "I've been taking care of those two on my own--and I don't need you to baby them, I just need you to support my decisions, and to not mope around when you don't agree with one!" 

"Don't shout, you'll wake the boys," Gladio said softly, in a broken tone that should've given Ignis pause, but didn't. 

He spun, taking in the sight of Gladio--who, by all means, shouldn't have looked pitiful like this, half-dressed and apologetic. Folded in on himself, looking at Ignis with a pathetically wet gaze as the harsh wind blew back his tangled hair. 

"When are we going to talk about your father?" Ignis asked softly, glaring in the vicinity of his navel, watching his stomach contract with the visible wince. 

"My father?" Gladio repeated stiffly, his arms falling lack at his sides. Ignis could practically hear his heart rate quicken across the divide. 

"Yes." 

"What about it?" Gladio said softly, turning back to glare down at the beach. There was a rather animated couple below them, too far for Gladio to hear, but enough to see that made him uncomfortably shift his eyes back to Ignis. 

"You fought with him before you left." 

"I always fought with him. What difference does it make?" He snarled, and Ignis could tell how hard he was fighting to keep his emotions in check. Ignis softened. 

"He loved you," Ignis clarified softly. "And he knew you loved him." 

"I'm sure he's so fucking proud," Gladio growled, staring over the railing at the sea like it held an answer for him. "God, Ignis, I almost fucking told him--" 

"I know," Ignis crooned, stepping forward, holding his hand out like an offering. "But you didn't." 

Ignis didn't ask the unspoken--the thing he knew he shouldn't ask, but couldn't deduce for himself. He didn't know if this--if they--were temporary, if Gladio would grow bored of him, if Gladio would make the necessary choice to give him up because duty demanded it. 

Clarus was dead, Insomnia with it. No more duty, no more dying, and yet Ignis felt as if Gladio was ready to let go of the guilt and shame that had been eating him alive--ready, albeit, to let go of Ignis. 

"I'm sorry," Ignis whispered, his voice breaking in a way Gladio wasn't sure he'd ever heard before, and he watched Ignis' face contort hopeless as he struggled to find something to say--unseen, unheard-of, wholly knew to Gladio. "I know I put you on the back burner, Gladiolus--" 

"'S your job--" 

"But I love  _you_ ," Ignis sobbed, and Gladio turned quickly to catch the boy using his t-shirt to scrub at his face. "I understand I come off as disingenuous in respect to you, and Noctis is and always will be my priority--he's like my brother, Gladio, you must understand that--" 

"I do," he gruffed, meaning it wholly as he reached out to clasp his fists around Ignis' biceps, pulling him close so that forehead could rest against the column of his throat. Ignis shook, shivering from the air and familiar warmth that had been foreign to him for weeks now. 

"I love you," Ignis said again, his fingers reaching around to clasp at Gladio's back, his fingers scratching none too gently at his tattoo, and Gladio just pressed him tighter. "It wasn't right for me to tip toe with Noctis and expect you to be at top performance."

"We all lost--" 

"It's not the same, and you know it," Ignis whispered, and Gladio melted when he felt lips pressed against his clavicle. "I chose you, Gladiolus. I regret not telling you sooner, but there weren't words to express how much I respected your decision to stay." 

Gladio sighed, fisting his hands into Ignis' t-shirt. "I wouldn't leave you for anything." 

He could feel Ignis' grin spread across his chest, earning him another quick peck, this time to the underside of his jaw, making his toes curl--the physical affection felt new again, after weeks with only nothingness. 

"It's more than that," Ignis grinned, earning a snort from Gladio. "You like him." 

A pause. "Don't tell him." 

Ignis practically giggled, an action he blamed on the early hour and the oxytocin high, but Gladio found it endearing nonetheless. "It wouldn't hurt if you told him." 

"Hmmph," he grumbled, pulling Ignis' tighter again so that any words the advisor mumbled would be muffled.

Despite the chill of the air and the hour of the night, the boys stayed out a few moments longer, clinging onto one another as if the world were fading around them. Perhaps it was. 

"We alright?" Gladio asked a moment later, immediately prompting Ignis to nod furiously against Gladio's chest, enjoying the feeling when the larger man laughed. 

"There's little you could do to run me off, Gladio," Ignis grinned, pulling away so that he could make eye contact. His glasses were slightly askew, and his green eyes were lidded, lazy with sleep. Gladio was helpless, clenching tighter into Ignis' undershirt. "You and I are bound for life," he reminded with a serious glare. 

"It would be a fuckin' awkward office party," Gladio agreed sagely, earning a playful slap from the advisor. 

"Let's go to bed before you freeze to death." 

"I call big spoon!" 

"Indeed."


End file.
